STATE'S CLEANUP RULES, COSTS ANGER COUNCIL

KIMBERLY W. MOY; Courant Staff WriterTHE HARTFORD COURANT

As town officials anxiously await word about much-needed state funds for PCB cleanup and related costs at Southington High School, some town council members on Monday said state-imposed cleanliness and safety standards amount to overkill.

"Every time someone puts on a white suit, the charge goes up to $1,000 an hour," council member Andrew Meade said. "It's a complete embarrassment. ... Whether we pay the bill or the state pays the bill, it's a complete rip-off."

Council members said they were unsure of the solution, but they may write a letter of complaint to Gov. John G. Rowland to at least prevent a similar scenario in another town.

"There should be an investigation," Meade said, referring to costs such as the required presence of ambulance crews and firefighters during the cleanup after an early September fire in the school's clock system.

The fire released PCBs -- polychlorinated biphenyls -- suspected to cause cancer. Because environmental and health officials were trying to make the cleanup so complete that contaminants would be undetectable, the work stretched from September to mid-December and has now evolved into some construction preparation.

On top of $2.3 million for cleanup and testing and $500,000 to replace items ruined during the fire and subsequent PCB release, the town has spent $245,000 on police and fire department overtime, Town Manager John Weichsel has told the state legislature's environment committee. Reconstructing the basement could add $2 million, town officials said.

And as town officials haggle with insurance agents over coverage, the town's reserves have dipped toward $2 million, from $5 million in June of last year.

Town council member Edward Malczyk called the strict standards "unreasonable." At the state fire marshal's recommendation, for example, a firefighter was to stand guard at a locked door, said Malczyk, a history teacher at the high school.

"Some of those recommendations were self-serving," he said. "There was no reason anybody would go in there."

Malczyk, also a high school golf coach, lamented the trailer-loads of sports equipment and other items, including golf balls, thrown out in the early days of the cleanup. "Things that had no relevance to any type of safety were discarded," he said.Council member Victoria Triano said the governor could perhaps help coordinate the various agencies responsible for overseeing environmental cleanups, which she called "an ongoing drain" on the town.

"It, in fact, could have crippled a community that wasn't as healthy as Southington," Triano said.

Meanwhile, the school board voted last week to ask the town for $300,000 more to cover recent bills -- $230,000 for repair and reconstruction-related costs and $70,000 for miscellaneous costs, including having ambulance crews stand by during the cleanup.

At Weichsel's suggestion, the board also is seeking $372,000 to replace more than 3,000 lighting ballasts that may contain PCBs in the high school, two middle schools and nine elementary schools.